Hate to See You Go…

It is the last day of classes, and I am sorry to say it but I am signing off. I know if I try and keep going with the blog I will end up abandoning it due to time restraints and I would rather give it a nice crisp ending. It’s been a long but good semester and I have learned a lot from this blog. It did not fully come out as I would have liked it, but I still think it has been somewhat successful. Even if I help one student, that would be enough for me because I wish I had that help when I was applying. Throughout the entire semester I have tried to give you tips, but I am going to part ways with one of the simplest yet most generally made mistakes that college freshmen make:

DO NOT GO TO COLLEGE WITH YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER.

That, my friends…is Candid Campus. Thanks for the great experience.

Life After College in 2009.

So you’ve graduated college. In your mind, the next step is a no-brainer: get a job. In this day and age, that isn’t the case anymore. My brother agreed to let me summarize his experience since he graduated college in May.

Kyle Gallagher is a 22 year old Rowan Graduate with a degree in Advertising. He graduated in May 2009 with his bachelors. His GPA was great and he was recognized and named during graduation by the speaker, David Girgenti.

David Girgenti - Photo taken from www.Rowan.edu

After the graduation, Kyle began working with David Girgenti – the founder of Wish Upon A Hero.

“At Wish Upon A Hero, visitors post wishes—things like Lasik eye surgery for a veteran of the Iraq war, a return trip to Hawaii for a Pearl Harbor war hero’s 90th birthday and even bagpipes for a loved one. Some wishes are funny. Some are poignant. Some are heartbreaking. The response to the wishes has been overwhelming.  As of March, the site had 50,000 registered members and had facilitated close to 30,000 fulfilled wishes” (Wish Upon A Hero Official Site).

Kyle began to work as an unpaid intern in May of 2009 with a possible job available at the end of his internship. He couldn’t believe after hearing how bad the job world was that he could be so lucky. Throughout the summer, Kyle organized multiple “Wishes” with Dave and became very close with the creator. The “unpaid” status of his job began to show, and soon Kyle went to Dave for help. This is when he got the news that the company was possibly hiring him in the Fall. A few more months of hard work flew by, and Kyle’s hopes were high. He decided to take only two night courses as a graduate student at Rowan as he anticipated a full-time job during the day.

Long Overdue

Hello, again! Before I put up that last post I was telling you guys about, I am putting up an interview that is long overdue. We were assigned a multi-media interview long ago and I had done it but never got to post it. Since then, I decided I wanted to change it. I had a few interviews from other students’ opinions and have written with “knowledge” this entire blog, but I have never gotten a chance to really share that knowledge. For this interview, I had my cousin, a Stockton Education Graduate, interview me with my questions and a few of her own.

Taron Perry: Name the top 5 pros of Rowan

Colby Gallagher: 1. The diverse majors

My major is so specialized, I'm doing exactly what I want

2. The teachers

3. The technology

4. The location. Philly and New York are both within reasonable distance.

5. I’m scrounging for this one…hmm..the campus size. Not too big or too small.

TP: What are the 5 cons of Rowan?

CG: 1. PARKING, PARKING, PARKING.

2. They’re taking away all of my favorite food places; The food is generally unhealthy.

3. The course availability

The red circle is what's left in each class. Notice the 0's; sometimes it can be difficult to get a class.

4. The location. Too close to home.

5. The safety.

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You…

Hello, readers! The end of the semester is nearing and I am going to put up one more multimedia post before I “sign off”. This entire blog has been about the real side of college life and sharing true opinions of the kids who would know best: students. What a better way to close the semester with something signaling the end than college graduates? I have spoken about how to handle college throughout my posts, now I am going to give you an idea of what real college graduates live like. Even as little as 5 years ago students were able to graduate and move on to a full-time job in no time. We have adapted this perception, “first comes college, then comes job”, but in 2009 that is no longer the case.

In my family alone there has been 3 college graduates. Guess how many have a full-time job? If you guessed zero, you would be correct! All three of those graduates, made up of my two brothers and cousin, have decided to go back to school for a higher degree. Life is getting harder for those who graduate, and its not going to be smooth sailing. This post should give you a little sneak-peek into the life of a college graduate. Keep your eyes peeled for my post “Life After College” tomorrow!

Tired?

Is this you?

Ever feel like you can’t catch up on your sleep? Lately I’ve noticed how tired I am, especially with finals coming up. Throughout the entire semester I have been able to sneak a nap in here and there, but with Christmas and finals approaching there is no time for catnaps. Instead of accepting defeat, I decided to find ways to boost my energy during these tough times. I have made sure to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night, joined a gym and began exercising regularly, and have adopted a healthier diet. Although I am still tired, it is only natural when balancing work and school 7 days a week. I have noticed a great improvement in my energy. Now, when I am tired, it is more of an “exhausted” tired, not a “falling asleep on my desk” tired. I can focus better in school and am finishing homework at a healthy rate instead of cramming. There are plenty of sites with different suggestions to help you stay awake.

• Wikihow suggests cutting your sodium intake and using pillows to ensure your muscles get the right rest.
• India Parenting suggests starting your day by eating a healthy breakfast and using mood enhancing techniques such as listening to music or wearing your favorite outfit.
• Ezine Articles exposes the truth about common myths, such as “coffee helps you stay awake” and “naps make you less tired”
• WebMD has a great article “22 Ways to Tackle Life’s Biggest Energy Zappers“. In this article, you can find tips such as watching your caffeine intake after noon, hiding your alarm clock when trying to fall asleep, and making pets sleep in a separate bed.

There are lots of sites with different tips that can help you fall asleep. Everyone is different; the best suggestion is to try as many as you can and find the ones that work for you. What do you do to keep energized and awake throughout the day? Leave a comment and let me know!

It’s Crunch Time!

When chugging Redbull just doesn't cut it.

The dreaded finals week is approaching, and I have endless amounts of projects, assignments, presentations, and tests. On top of that, work is scheduling more hours since half of our employees are college students that don’t live in the area. This means they will be going home for a month, leaving us with barely enough employees. Guess what? Your teacher doesn’t want to hear it! There are thousands of kids who are going through the same problems at this time, so instead of complaining about it…take action! Try and find ways to do some of your assignments without feeling like you’re working all the time. Here are a few ways I’ve tried to multitask:

• Read in bed. My one final is based on 3 books, and I have read 1. I have equally split up the pages by the amount of nights I have left, and vow to read the required pages a night. This way I won’t be cramming 400 pages in the night before the test. Since I already read in bed, it doesn’t feel like much of a chore. Granted, the books are boring…but I sleep so much better.
• Blog about everyday experiences. My one class requires blog posts, hence this blog. Instead of cramming all 4 posts in the night before, I figure I will just honestly write about my college experience of the day/week. It makes it more personable, anyways. I feel better doing this because I’m not scrounging for ideas.
• Be resourceful. I have a class where we are assigned a town to cover all semester. My town is West Deptford, which has been very difficult since the only thing I know about the town is that my boyfriend lives there. In my other class today, a kid named Richie Wisniewski presented his blog…which just so happened to be all about the town of West Deptford. You should’ve seen the look on my face when I realized I could write a story about him for my assignment. I’m taking something from one class and applying it to another. It helps.
• Another class I take is all about writing for broadcast television. I recently had to present the Nielsen Ratings to the rest of the class. I took notecards and jotted down ideas of things to say days before I presented, and then thought about the other aspects of the project later. By creating a mini-outline for my future assignment, I was able to go back to it a day or two later and finish it up in no time. I know this is common sense, but outlines really do help.
• Lastly, I have started going to bed earlier. This way I can wake up in the morning and start off by doing some work on assignments. I can say I’ll work on a project when I get home from school, but you and I both know I’m lying.

By making a few easy changes, you’ll feel the weight start to lift. I suddenly don’t feel like I left for vacation and didn’t pack something. You know, that nagging feeling that you forgot something or you have to do something but don’t know what. Try and ease that feeling by making a few of these simple changes in your day, and watch how much easier the week goes! Basically what I’m saying is: USE YOUR RESOURCES. Good luck.

A Fast Look at Local Colleges

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Don’t Panic! A college comic website

On Don’t Panic! by Andy Moore, you can find plenty of humorous comics like this. I stumbled upon this site and find some of the comics to be pretty funny; it’s like a huge inside joke for all college students.

Something to think about

On the way to class Thursday night I hit bumper to bumper traffic. I was finally on time (For once. Trust me, its not my forte.) and I am suddenly stoppped, staring at the back of a Ford for ten minutes. After I finally parked and started walking to class, I realized there was a huge accident on the main road of campus. Things like this are bound to happen and can often have bad consequences. We were doing group projects that day, thankfully I wasn’t scheduled to go. If I was, my group would have been missing their game show host, a central part of our project.

People often don’t consider these situations when deciding to commute or not. Try and think about all the possible scenarios that could happen. Gas is getting expensive. Try and calculate how much money it will cost you to drive back and forth all year. Then there are projects and other assignments that you’ll have to work on outside of class. The gas might be almost as expensive as living on campus, so really weigh your options when deciding to live at home or not.

Group Projects

The dreaded group project. Every group has one person that refuses to do their share of the work, no matter what. Problem is, the rest of the group always covers for that person because they don’t want their grade to suffer. This = the person getting a grade while doing zero work. You could be the victim or you may be that lazy person, but we’ve all been through it once. In my radio class we were assigned groups, and that’s where it went wrong. Since we didn’t choose our groups, many people are complaining about a certain person in their group doing something such as not returning calls, skipping meetings, and more. Here are some tips and sites on making a successful group project.

• Get organized. Exchange contact information. Be sure to save your emails or texts so you have proof if a certain student isn’t answering.
• List and assign tasks. Have each teammate sign the paper so they vow to do their part. If/when they don’t, you have a clear paper stating what each person promised to do, so if something is missing, the person is responsible.
• Create an outline and follow it. This way, you don’t have a group meeting and realize you spent the last two hours discussing the latest episode of The Office.
• Balance the amount of work each person has. Don’t give the smartest kid the most amount of work just because they can do it. Chances are, they have a ton of other work to do and may not be able to complete 85% of the project on their own.
• Last but not least, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE!! If you’re having trouble or need help, ask one of your fellow group members! It doesn’ t mean they’ll have to do the work for you, but chances are they’ll have an opinion or idea of their own.

Have any group horror or success stories you’d like to share? Leave a comment and share what or what not to do when working with a group!